Nora by Charles Jay Harwood Chapter 5.4

The
lights rebounded against each side of the windscreen. The death-car’s fishtail
battered her into a ragdoll state, but she barely noticed. The row of lights
burned at the centre of her existence. Would these be the terminus? Would she
be getting off here? How deep is the fall…? How deep? The pores of her body
flew open in a creeping rash. The limo plummeted with majesty into its
magnificent skid and the streetlights approached in a hypnotic dance. A
nanosecond imprinted a vision of Leon wrestling the steering wheel; behind him,
Vince pitched about like a showroom dummy. He seemed unimpressed…or entranced,
she wasn’t sure. Another flicker. The chassis emitted a sickening roar.
Scorched oil spiked the air. Would the floor open up beneath and suck her onto
the bandsaw below?

Pleaaase!

The
cab collapsed into a tilt. The streetlights vanished from view and streaked
comet-like around the cab windows. Those infernal railings quivered on speeding
past. Nancy’s neck pulsed against the torque. Her jaw ached and her skull
oscillated with the scream of metal scoring tarmac. How deep…? The railings reappeared, merging together in transparent
imprints. How deep..?

The
screeching hit a timbre that clawed at her ears. The chaos flickered into a
blur she daren’t contemplate. And when the railing shot back into view, they no
longer quivered but stood to attention no more than ten feet away.

In
an instant, the grille connected with steel. The spine of the car convulsed. A
headlight exploded, the other lit a nightmare of twisted spindles against a
black void. Nancy’s head reeled from the fairground spin. But gravity was
shifting. The limo groaned. Sensing the same force, Leon pushed against the
back of his seat. No one uttered a sound. The railings buckled like card. The
limo slipped frontwards in a penitent bow. Nancy’s seatbelt cut into her
midriff. Her limbs, her neck, her internal organs slipped forwards. Her feet
batted the floor in a futile attempt to defy gravity. How deep…how deep…?

The
engine continued to roar in midair. But serenity enclosed her. Gravity
desisted. A hairline crack shot across her window. Hair fanned her face. Her
spine rebounded against the upholstery. Light flashed across the interior. This
is the door to her very soul. The fall is deep, as deep as…. The limo forced
outside of presumed destiny became no longer a mass of metal, but an entity
liberated. She mourned her enclosure. A multitude of safety fixtures had seen
their finest hour. And all in the name of her. An exalted gasp escaped her.

A
wall of gravel faced-off the windscreen. Her bubble of clarity imploded.
Thunder burrowed into every joint from her feet to her neck. Her stomach
sloshed against her abdominal wall, bringing simultaneous nausea and hunger.
Air jetted from her nostrils; her eyelids flickered. A rocky floor-scape
advanced against the windscreen. Please…God! A round of detonations inched it
closer. The bonnet yielded like tin. Bleached pebbles cut from shadows scored
into her retinas. Glass rippled into a million daggers strung together.

She
could stand it no more. She begged desperately for everything to stop but the
floor-scape plummeted. Her chin struck her chest. She gritted her teeth. The
cab pitched backwards in an endless arc. In an instant, her head weighed a ton.
Her nape slammed against the back of her seat. Her throat closed up. The cab
ceiling filled her vision. Would this be her final image?

Her
seat pulsed. The rear wheels shunted gravel; her ribcage shunted her lungs. She
grunted air she never thought possible and a nettle rash shimmered across her
chest. She begged the sensation wouldn’t spread. But silver wings swarmed
across her vision. Was she still falling backwards? Was this the light in her
deepest, darkest hour? And when she hits the bottom, what would await her?

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ECLIPSE QUARTET: 4 THRILLERS OF PARANOIA AND OBSESSION

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WHAT THE STORY IS ABOUT

Nancy is hurled into the world of celebrity when she finds herself performing a shoot for odious playboy, Vince, as they walk from one of his nightclubs. The tragedy that unfolds cements their world together.

A free thriller serialized on a blog. Copyright has been asserted by Charles J Harwood 2013. Please do not copy. The final chapters have been omitted.